Most Americans still hold favorable views of Israel, according to a new Gallup poll released Monday.
Seventy percent of Americans view Israel very or mostly favorably, while only 17 percent view the Palestinian Authority in a favorable light, down 2 percent.
When respondents were asked who they sympathize with more when it comes to tensions in the Middle East, 62 percent said they sympathize more with Israel, and only 16 percent said they sympathize more with the Palestinians.
But in a typical fashion, there's a significant partisan divide on the issue, especially being that President Barack Obama has had one of the most acrimonious relationships with Israel of any president in history.
Less than half of Democrats - 48 percent - said they sympathize more with the Israelis than the Palestinians, down 10 points from last year, which possibly reflects "the tension between Obama and Netanyahu," noted Gallup. When it comes to the nation of Israel itself, 60 percent of Democrats hold a favorable view, down from 74 percent a year ago.
On the other hand, Republican support for Israel has risen sharply from 53 percent in 2000, to 83 percent in 2015. Fifty-nine percent of independents said they sympathize more with the Israelis.
As Gallup mentioned, the tension between Obama and Netanyahu likely contributes to the drop in support among Democrats.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address the U.S. Congress on March 3 in what is expected to be a rallying call to halt nuclear negotiations with Iran and instead increase sanctions against the country.
The problem for Democrats is that Netanyahu was invited by Republican House Speaker John Boehner without first alerting the White House, which administration officials say was a breach of normal diplomatic protocol. For this, and being that Israel's elections are on March 17, many Democrats claim the invitation was inappropriate and plan to skip the speech.
Gallup conducted the poll from Feb. 8-11 among 837 adults and reported a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
